| Description |
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) conducted research to identify areas of seafloor elevation stability and instability based on elevation changes between the years of 2016 and 2019 along the Florida Reef Tract (FRT) from Miami to Key West within a 939.4 square-kilometer area. USGS SPCMSC staff used seafloor elevation-change data from Fehr and others (2021) derived from an elevation-change analysis between two elevation datasets acquired in 2016/2017 and 2019 using the methods of Yates and others (2017). Most of the elevation data from the 2016/2017 time period were collected during 2016, so as an abbreviated naming convention, we refer to this time period as 2016. Due to file size limitations, the elevation-change data was divided into five blocks. A seafloor stability threshold was determined for the 2016-2019 FRT elevation-change datasets based on the vertical uncertainty of the 2016 and 2019 digital elevation models (DEMs). Five stability categories (which include, Stable: 0.0 meters (m) to ±0.24 m or 0.0 m to ±0.49 m; Moderately stable: ±0.25 m to ±0.49 m; Moderately unstable: ±0.50 m to ±0.74 m; Mostly unstable: ±0.75 m to ±0.99 m; and Unstable: ±1.00 m to Max/Min elevation change) were created and used to define levels of stability and instability for each elevation-change value (total of 235,153,117 data points at 2-m horizontal resolution) based on the amount of erosion and accretion during the 2016 to 2019 time period. Seafloor-stability point and triangulated irregular network (TIN) surface models were created for each block at five different elevation-change data resolutions (1st order through 5th order) with each resolution becoming increasingly more detailed. The stability models were used to determine the level of seafloor stability at potential areas of interest for coral restoration and 14 habitat types found along the FRT. Stability surface (TIN) models were used for areas defined by specific XY geographic points, while stability point models were used for areas defined by bounding box coordinate locations. This data release includes ArcGIS Pro map packages containing the binned and color-coded stability point and surface (TIN) models, potential coral restoration locations, and habitat files for each block; maps of each stability model; and data tables containing stability and elevation-change data for the potential coral restoration locations and habitat types. Data were collected under Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary permit FKNMS-2016-068. Coral restoration locations were provided by Mote Marine Laboratory under Special Activity License SAL-18-1724-SCRP. [More]
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